Stalkers of Pestilence. The Story of Man's Ideas of Infection.

Abstract

This is a reprint, with additions and corrections, from the American Journal of Surgery, Vol. VII, 1929. The volume traces briefly the historical development of man's ideas of the nature of infection and of infectious diseases. Five chapters: Prehistoric Man to Hippocrates; Arabic Medicine, The Medieval Period and the Renaissance; The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries; the Nineteenth Century; and the Twentieth Century are devoted to this evolution of knowledge of parasites and parasitism. The transition from the primitive superstitions and mythologies of the earliest periods, through phases of belief in telluric, cosmic, and miasmatic influences, to a final understanding of